Nick sighed in relief as the guild building came into view. It had taken longer than they expected to get back, but they made it back in one day. They were finally going to get paid and they could finally take a bath and get clothes that weren't crusty with dry blood. As they entered the guild many people did a double take, though there were not many people still up or around at this time of night. Nick couldn't blame them for their shocked expressions, they both looked like hell.
Nick's jeans and hoodie were both stained from blood and his pants were ripped where he was bitten by one of the wolves. His bandaged arm was also clearly visible and the bandages were stained with old blood. Alyssa did not look much better, her bandaged midsection visible under the ripped and bloody portion of her shirt. Her bandaged leg was also clearly visible due to Nick cutting off the majority of her pant leg to get to the wound. When the woman at the reception desk saw them she got a concerned look on her face.
"What happened?" She asked as Nick and Alyssa approached the desk.
"A pack of twelve very aggressive dire wolves... That's what happened." Alyssa said, placing the quest paper on the desk.
"Twelve? Crap, we must have gotten bad information. As it says on the paper, there were only supposed to be six. If we had known, that would have been a B rank quest. I would have not let you go on it without more people." She grabbed the paper with a sigh and began to walk away to a back room. "I will be right back with payment."
"Bad information. We almost died because someone can't count." Nick complained, leaning against the reception desk.
"The person who set up the quest must have only seen half of the pack. Stuff like this happens, there is nothing we can do about it. We are just lucky it wasn't a bigger pack or we might not have survived."
"Yeah, we should definitely stick to easier quests with less targets. I wonder if that ogre quest will still be around next week."
"Doubt it. Quests at our level tend to come and go frequently. They don't pay as much as the higher level quests and are also a lot more common so they change out a lot as people take them and people submit them. The only time a quest doesn't get taken for a long time is because the pay isn't worth the risk or the trouble."
"Kind of like the one we just did."
"Exactly." Alyssa laughed, looking over to the door that led to the back room. "Huh, I wonder what is taking so long."
After a few more minutes the door opened and the woman came out with a small leather pouch in her hand. "Sorry for the wait, it always takes a bit longer when the quest turns out to be a lot more hazardous than anticipated." She dropped the small pouch on the counter. "Eight gold. Double the pay for double the wolves."
Alyssa and Nick were both surprised, neither were aware that they were going to get more than the posted amount. "Hazard pay. The guild pays out of pocket when members complete quests that were more dangerous than advertised. It is kind of like our way of saying sorry." The receptionist explained when she saw their shocked and confused faces.
"So, fifty-fifty then?" Nick asked Alyssa.
"Sounds good to me. Let's get going, we can check into a nearby inn for the night."
"Alright."
They divided the money, both getting four gold. Alyssa explained to him that one gold should get him a room for four nights at a decent inn, the equivalent of five silver a night. It took a couple hours of searching, but eventually they found an inn with good rooms for five silver a night. They were not large rooms, but it is not like they needed much space. it was the perfect place for them to relax for a while. Once they both got their rooms they decided to go to sleep.
Nick yawned, stretching and standing up. It was the next morning, and he planned to get things done today. Alyssa was going to sell the wolf skins and Nick planned on getting a bath, a meal, a workout, and then he planned on doing a little bit of shopping. A wolf completely ruined a pair of his pants, after all. His hoodie was fine, it just needed to be cleaned.
He changed into a short sleeved shirt, shorts, and changed out of his boots into normal shoes before heading to a public bathhouse. It cost him two silver to use the bathhouse, once he got inside he quickly realized why it was so cheap. To put it simply, it was not very well maintained. Once done with his bath he got food at the first restaurant he found, he was surprised to find out they had proper restaurants in this world. The food and service were both good, but not quite as good as in the castle.
Once done with his food, he made his way back to the guild. He had learned that they had a gym all members could use for free. He entered the guild and walked to reception, the same woman who had paid them was working currently. "Hey, can I use the gym here?"
"Of course, you just need to show me your guild ID. Even if I know you are a member I still need to ask to see it."
"Alright." Nick took the ID out and showed it to her.
"Alright, follow me, I will show you to the gym. How is your arm, by the way?"
"Oh, it's fine." Nick looked down at his arm, where he once had bite wounds he now just had scabs. Tonight he was going to heal them up the rest of the way, not even leaving a scar. However, he did plan to leave the scar from the bite on his leg as a kind of reminder of his first mission. He felt like he would regret it if he got rid of it, much like if he got rid of the scar from his stab wound.
"Here it is." The receptionist came to an abrupt stop and motioned towards the gym. The walls of the gym were mostly glass paneling, he could see every inch of it without even entering. The gym was actually more impressive than the ones he had seen in the castle, which made sense, all things considered.
"Thanks." Nick entered the gym and looked around, it was completely packed with people. There must have been three dozen people inside, but luckily the gym was large enough so that people weren't bumping into each other. There were also enough weights and other pieces of equipment so that there was always something you could use. He was glad he could finally get in a proper workout.
Nick sighed, putting down a pair of dumbbells on the rack he got them from. He was about an hour into his workout at this point. Nick bent down to grab a lighter pair of dumbbells to use for a different workout, as he grabbed them he could feel someone tap on his shoulder. When he turned his head to look at who it was he couldn't help but grin. "Trak?"
"Hey, little man." Trak roughly slapped Nick on the back, letting out a laugh. "You joined the guild? What rank are you?"
Nick watched as Trak grabbed two one hundred pound dumbbells off of the rack and began to casually curl them. "I'm C rank. What about you?"
"I have been S rank for a bit over three years now. If you are C rank at your age I wouldn't be surprised if you made B rank within a year!"
"I find that hard to believe. Me and my companion did a B rank mission, it nearly killed us. It was labeled as a C rank, thanks to wrong information." Nick imagined that he would have to be at a level to handle that quest on his own before we was allowed to become B rank. He couldn't even imagine what kind of quests Trak was taking.
"But you survived! That is all that matters!" Trak grinned, Nick chuckled.
"I would have died if not for my magic and my companion. I got a ways to go until I will be worthy of B rank."
'Bah! Nonsense, if you are C rank at your age you are sure to grow quickly. You should be A rank by your mid twenties. You might even catch up to me before my adventuring days are over!" Nick couldn't imagine that. He would have to take a look at the S rank quests to see the kind of insane tasks that Trak is doing.
"For now, I think I will focus on just trying not to die on my C rank quests before I worry about ranking up."
"You have more potential than you realize. You have grown an inconceivable amount since the last time I saw you." Nick couldn't deny that fact. It had not even been a quarter of a year since he recovered from his paralysis, but he was already fighting against packs of wolves.
"That may be true, but right now I need to focus on getting stronger before I think about trying to rank up."
Trak placed his weights back on the rack. "Alright. Well, I will leave you to your workout. I'm going to grab another quest and head out."
They both waved goodbye before Trak walked out of the gym and headed to the bulletin board to get a new quest. Man, I never realized that Trak was so strong... I wonder what rank Rolfe and Kane would be... Nick went back to his workout, trying not to think about guild rankings and quests. They made him C rank for a reason and he decided that they would promote him when they thought he was ready.
After his workout he decided to spend a bit of his money on a new pair of pants. It did not take him long to find a pair of pants that were similar enough to his custom made jeans. He was now down two gold of the four he got from the quest. After a lunch at one in the afternoon he met back up with Alyssa at the inn to see if she could sell the wolf pelts. He didn't have to wait long for her.
"Well, good news and bad news." Alyssa sighed, walking up to Nick with her arms crossed.
"Well, give me the bad news first." Nick braced himself.
"The pelts were in horrible condition, so I couldn't get much for them." She paused for a second. "But, I was able to sell them. Three gold." Alyssa took out one gold and ten silver coins. "Here is your half."
Nick took the coins and put them in his pocket, Alyssa put hers in a leather pouch on her belt that he had not seen before. "What is that?"
"This?" She pointed to her pouch, looking at him with a questioning glance.
"Yes, that."
"What do you think it is? It's a coin pouch, I found one for pretty cheap. You should buy one too, it would be a lot easier than carrying around so much money in your pocket."
"Good idea, I'll look for one tomorrow... Or today." Nick sighed. "We haven't been back for long and I have already completely run out of things to do."
Alyssa chuckled. "I know what you mean. We can always leave early, but for now just walk around. I'm sure you can find something to do in this city. Go make a friend or something."
"Easier said than done. I doubt I have much in common with these people."
"I'm sure you have something in common with many of the people in this city. It would be more surprising if you didn't."
"I wouldn't know what to talk about with these people."
"You're hopeless. Welp, I'm going shopping. I'll see you when I see you."
Nick watched as Alyssa ran off, entering his room once she was out of sight. He spent the rest of the day in his room either reading, practicing with Azara in sword form, or healing. The only time he left his room was to get food or use the bathroom. He was feeling anything but relaxed, he was restless.